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Earlier this week, USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue and Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Brandon Lipps joined students in New Jersey, Virginia and the District of Columbia for wholesome school lunches in celebration of National School Lunch Week, as proclaimed by President Trump. Nearly 100,000 schools and institutions serve almost 30 million children through the National School Lunch Program. Secretary Perdue visited Discovery Elementary School in Arlington, Va., where he met with the school’s nutrition professionals, and served the children meals before...

(Note: Oct. 16 is World Food Day, when 150 countries around the world show their support of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization’s mission to raise awareness and help to end world hunger. The following article features one USDA-supported program that helps bring healthful food to low-income Americans.)

While many students were busy enjoying summer vacation, our nation’s hardworking school nutrition professionals were also staying busy, dedicating their time to training and meal planning for the upcoming school year. During National School Lunch Week (October 15-19), USDA recognizes the tireless effort and love that goes into preparing school lunches for 30 million children.

My mother has a jar in her kitchen with the phrase, “Cooking is love made visible.” I can say for a fact that her food spreads a lot of love, and I think the same could be said about school food service professionals.

Summer is a great time for kids to get outside and be physically active. But for those days that are spent indoors, Nutrition.gov’s Children section has solutions to keep children busy and encourage healthy lifestyle habits.

Summer is in full swing with warm, long days to enjoy with friends and family. The season offers a perfect time to stock your freezer with vegetables to have on-hand. Frozen vegetables are simple to store and an easy way to make half your plate fruits and vegetables year round. One popular freezer favorite for every season is frozen broccoli.

As the school year ends across the country and summer approaches, summer meals are critical in the lives of millions of our nation’s youth, whose risk for food insecurity increases during the summer months when they no longer have access to the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs (NSLP).

Did you know the southern states of Georgia and South Carolina both name the peach as their state fruit? Whether they’re fresh, canned, dried or frozen, peaches can easily be included in a healthy eating pattern. Canned peaches are not only delicious and nutritious, but are easy to use because they’re pre-cut and washed. When selecting canned peaches, choose ones that are unsweetened or canned in water or 100 percent fruit juice.

At USDA our mission is a vital one: to reduce hunger and increase food security by providing children and low-income people access to food, a nutritious diet and nutrition education. And that mission was put to the test in 2017, in the aftermath of a trio of devastating hurricanes that slammed into Texas, Florida, U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

As Americans, we care about our neighbors in need, and we also expect that the nutrition assistance benefits we pay for with hard-earned tax dollars are used as intended – to put food on the table. Public trust is a central part of USDA’s mission. To help meet that mission, the Department recently released the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Fraud Framework (PDF, 216 KB) to provide states with new and innovative resources to help combat recipient fraud and benefit trafficking.
Click on the image to download the .pdf file
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